Storytelling combines the intensity of a solo performance with the intimacy of a face-to-face conversation.
"Storytelling at its best is mutual creation. Through the interaction between teller and listener, storytelling speaks to the inner child to nurture the human spirit." -
Ellin Greene, author of Storytelling: Art & Technique.

"We've been telling together for five or six years," says Carol
Connolly of the four-member storytelling ensemble called Four Stories High.

"Actually, it's getting to be almost seven years, now that I think
about it. One of our members had a daughter who's 7 now."

Thereby, no doubt, hangs a tale

The foursome, two women from Albany and two from Niskayuna, all members of
the Story Circle of the Capital District, have turned up together in that span
of time at museums and cafes and colleges, at Victorian Strolls and First
Nights and at the Sharing The Fire Storytelling Conference at Simmons College.

Saturday, they will be piling the tales four stories high at Niskayuna High
School Aduitorium, collectively and, for three of the foursome, as solo stemwinders
at the fifth annual Tellabration, of which Connolly is a co-producer.

It's the Capital Region contribution toward a worldwide celebration of the
oral tradition, principally organized by the National Storytelling Network.

Launched in 1996 at Schenectady's Unitarian Church, it moved to GE's R&D
Center Auditorium a year later to accomodate the crowds and to Niskayuna last
year for the same reason. "This is the fourth time I'll be co-producing
it," says Connolly, "and the third I'll be telling at it."

Connolly explores folk tales, fairytales, myths, "a few family tales,
but by and large my repertoire is folk tales for around the world, and a few literary
tales" - like the one she'll be delivering Saturday, "a sweet little
story about stopping to smell the roses," she says.

Stopping to smell the roses seems an apropos thought coming from as member
of the Story Circle, sponsor of Tellabration, which is actually a benefit
supporting storytelling programs at local libraries, a dozen of them in all in
the last year.

The Circle was launched 16 years ago and now meets in alternating months at Colonie's
Willaim K. Sanford Library (third Tuesdays of odd months) and Glenville Public
Library (third Wednesday orf even months). Fifty-members strong, "We have
members who come from as far north as Tupper Lake, south as Greene County, west
to Schoharie and east to Vermont," says Connolly of the group.

Connolly got her start filling in at an all-day kindergarten classroom.

"When I moved up in terms of curricular content to second and fifth
grades, I used stories to enhance the lesson content," she said.

Looking to hone her skills, she saw newspaper notices of the Story Circle's
gatherings. "I thought, I should do that, but of course it took me two
years to actually make it to a meeting. But once I got started, I was
hooked."

Do tell

"It really is a wonderful thing, to go out and tell a story and see in
the eyes of your audience and on their faces that they're as caught up as you
are," she says. "That audience/teller connection is wonderful. It
really is much more personal than a movie or even going to the theater."

The Troy native first met Jane Ainslie, one of her partners in Four Stories
High, through the story circle, and they began storytelling together a few
years back. Jane was working at the Sage Library in Troy when Mary Murphy came
into the library and conversation turned to their mutual interest in the art of
the oral story.

"Eventually she said, hey, we should work together sometime, and the
rest is history," says Connolly. Murphy brought along her own storytelling
chum, Barbara Palumbo, to complete the foursome.

They begin their programs with an ensemble story - "with each of us
talking a separate part" - then each tells individual tales before
wrapping up in ensemble again.

"I think we're the only ones in the area who perform like that,"
she says. "It's unique, because each of us has our own performing style.
Gail Ryan of the Williamsville Inn, where we perform a lot, said we're the
perfect embodiment of what storytelling is all about -individual voices
blending together."

Joining them at Tellabration this weekend are fellow Story Circle regulars such
as Glenville's Joe Doolittle, Clifton Park's Kate Dudding, "story
walker" Kathleen Gill of Schenectady, and David and Gregory Rubin of
Niskayuna, among others. Many of the tellers are participants in the library
programs that Tellabration helps to fund.

And their tale-telling is finding new forums all the time. Last year they
launched occasional "Story Sundays" at Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia,
consisting, Connolly says, of "two tellers, a three-course meal and three
courses of story. It's quite a deal."

The most recent, in October, drew 120 fans to the mansion, and in the coming
year, starting January, the events will be booked almost one a month.

"People come back time and again, as they do for Tellabration,"
she says. "They come back year after year, so we must be doing something
right."

Audiences, she says, seek something deeper than just entertainment:
"The connectedness of teller to an audience is something we're missing in
our lives."

Tellabration 2000 is set for Saturday at Niskayuna High School Auditorium, 1626
Balltown Road, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. For
information, call 370-3700.